Professional artists by region of Manitoba
Professional artists by region of Manitoba
Plus: Summary analysis of cultural workers by region
This brief article provides a summary of the number of professional artists and cultural workers by region of Manitoba, based on custom data that Hill Strategies requested from Statistics Canada’s 2021 long-form census. This article is made possible with the support of the Manitoba Arts Council. Hill Strategies retained editorial control of the content. Notes regarding methods are provided at the end of the article.
Context: Provincial and Canadian data
According to census data, there are 5,200 professional artists in Manitoba, representing 0.7% of the province’s 727,100 workers. Presented differently, this means that 1 in every 140 workers in the province is an artist. A full article on Manitoba artists and cultural workers is available here.
Across Canada, there are 202,900 professional artists, representing 1.0% of the Canadian labour force. In other words, 1 in every 102 Canadian workers is an artist. A summary analysis of all Canadian artists is available here.
74% of Manitoba’s artists reside in the Winnipeg region
The Winnipeg Capital Region, which includes the City of Winnipeg and the RM of Headingley, is home to 3,800 artists, or 74% of all artists in Manitoba. Artists represent 0.9% of all workers in the Capital Region, or 1 in every 112 workers. The Capital Region’s proportion of each artist occupation is provided in the next section.
The 1,400 artists in other regions of the province (26% of the provincial total) are distributed as follows:
420 in the Eastman Region, which represents 0.6% of all local workers (or 1 in every 162 local workers).
310 in the Westman Region, representing 0.5% of all local workers (or 1 in every 211 local workers).
270 in the Interlake Region, which represents 0.5% of all local workers (or 1 in every 188 local workers).
180 in the Pembina Valley Region, representing 0.5% of all local workers (or 1 in every 189 local workers).
80 in the Central Plains Region, which represents 0.3% of all local workers (or 1 in every 333 local workers).
70 in the Northern Region, representing 0.2% of all local workers (or 1 in every 468 local workers).
Fewer than 40 in the Parkland Region. Any estimates below 40 are not considered reliable.
Artists by occupation
Because of relatively small numbers in most regions of the province, only a simplified analysis of each artist occupation (i.e., inside / outside the Winnipeg Capital Region) is provided here.
Among the 10 artist occupations, artisans and craftspeople are least likely to reside in Winnipeg: 55% reside in Winnipeg, and 45% reside outside of the Capital Region. The three artist occupation groups that are most likely to reside in Winnipeg are producers, directors, and choreographers (87%); actors, comedians, and circus performers (85%); as well as writers (84%). For each artist occupation, the percentages residing in Winnipeg are:
55% of the 600 artisans and craftspeople in Manitoba
63% of the 420 dancers
67% of the 550 photographers
69% of the 80 conductors, composers, and arrangers
70% of the 1,200 musicians
76% of the 420 painters, sculptors, and other visual artists
80% of the 150 other performers (including DJs, puppeteers, buskers, face painters, and models)
84% of the 560 writers
85% of the 490 actors, comedians, and circus performers
87% of the 750 producers, directors, choreographers, and related occupations
Demographic similarities and differences by region
Three important characteristics of artists in Manitoba are the high proportion of women (56%, much higher than the 47% of all Manitoba workers), very high educational achievement (40% with a bachelor’s degree or higher, much higher than the 27% of all Manitoba workers), and an extremely high self-employment rate (63%, more than five times higher than the 12% of all Manitoba workers).
As shown in the following graphs, each of these characteristics vary by region of the province, which might be at least partly due to the prevalence of different artist occupations.
The first graph shows that three-quarters of artists in the Interlake Region are women, much higher than the Manitoba average (56%). The Winnipeg Capital Region has the lowest proportion of women artists (53%).
The second graph shows that the Winnipeg Capital Region has the highest percentage of artists with at least a bachelor’s degree (44%), followed closely by the Westman Region (43%). The other three regions with reliable data have much lower proportions of artists with a bachelor’s degree.
As shown in the third graph, roughly three-quarters of professional artists in the Pembina Valley Region (78%) and the Central Plains Region (73%) are self-employed. The self-employment rates are much lower in the Winnipeg Capital Region (62%) and the Westman Region (57%).
Cultural workers by region of Manitoba
In Manitoba, there are 23,900 workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations, representing 3.3% of the province’s overall labour force, below the national average of 4.4%, One in every 30 workers in Manitoba has a cultural occupation.
The 52 occupation groups categorized as “workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations” (or simply “cultural workers”) include the 10 artist occupation groups, other cultural occupations (e.g., graphic designers, print operators, editors, translators, architects, and professionals in fundraising, advertising, marketing, and public relations), as well as heritage occupations (e.g., librarians, curators, and archivists).
The number of cultural workers in each region of the province is:
17,700 in the Winnipeg Capital Region, representing 4.1% of all local workers (or 1 in every 24 local workers). The Winnipeg Capital Region is home to 74% of the province’s cultural workers, equal to the Region’s share of artists.
1,700 in the Eastman Region, which represents 2.4% of all local workers (or 1 in every 41 local workers).
1,200 in the Westman Region, representing 1.9% of all local workers (or 1 in every 54 local workers).
1,200 in the Interlake Region, which represents 2.2% of all local workers (or 1 in every 45 local workers).
930 in the Pembina Valley Region, representing 2.6% of all local workers (or 1 in every 38 local workers).
470 in the Northern Region, which represents 1.4% of all local workers (or 1 in every 70 local workers).
420 in the Central Plains Region, representing 1.7% of all local workers (or 1 in every 59 local workers).
340 in the Parkland Region, which represents 1.6% of all local workers (or 1 in every 61 local workers).
Notes on methods
The analysis relates to professional workers, but with a very specific concept of professional. The census data on occupations include people who worked more hours as an artist than at any other occupation between May 1 and 8, 2021, plus people who were not in the labour force at that time but had worked more as an artist than at another occupation between January of 2020 and May of 2021. Part-time artists who spent more time at another occupation in May of 2021 would be classified in the other occupation. (The same would be true of workers in all occupations in the arts, culture, and heritage.)
The occupational perspective counts people who work across the economy, as long as they are classified into one of 10 artist occupation groups, 5 arts leadership occupation groups, or 52 cultural occupation groups. Details about the occupation groups included in each of the categories is available in a separate article, which also outlined the methods behind choosing the 52 cultural occupation groups. Another article highlighted some strengths and limitations of the census for counting artists and cultural workers.
The challenging context of the pandemic in the spring of 2021 is important to keep in mind when interpreting census data on artists, which were collected in May of 2021.